The tussle between Simone Biles and Riley Gaines on social media continues to attract debates. Athletes, gymnastics fans, and analysts alike continue to chime in to pick their side. The conversation began after the Minnesota State High School League shared a post on June 7 celebrating Champlin Park High School’s victory in the 2025 Class AAAA Girls Softball State Championship. The team’s roster included a transgender athlete, which became the center of the discussion.
As a junior pitcher, this player delivered a complete-game shutout in the championship match, allowing just three hits and striking out six batters. Throughout the state tournament, she pitched all 21 innings, conceding only two runs and earning All-tournament honors. The team’s victory post on X had its comments turned off, which Riley Gaines publicly linked to the inclusion of the transgender athlete.
This fired off Simone Biles. In response to her comment, Biles made a tweet saying, “bully someone your own size.” On the next day, Riley took to her Instagram to post two stories, voicing her response to the same. She explained how many gymnasts have connected with her personally to offer support in this debate. And now, people from different places have chimed in, including this gymnastics analyst, to voice their takes on a more public platform.
Historian of Science, dabbling in Gymnastics History, focusing on German WAG as well as sport governance within NGBs. This is the X bio of Katherine Keirns reads. Expressing on the ongoing controversy, she made a post on X on June 8 saying, “Gymnastics is a sport where men and women do different events and there is absolutely no actual concern about men competing the women’s events dominating.” Simone Biles has also been in the loop with Katherine, but it wasn’t any direct critique or support of the gymnast. Back in March, she wrote on X, “I believe the US WAG program is in decline,” arguing that its success has been heavily reliant on generational talents like Simone Biles and Sunisa Lee rather than a deep, well-developed system. Though she did not take names.
Gymnastics is a sport where men and women do different events and there is absolutely no actual concern about men competing the women’s events dominating.
— Katherine Keirns (@kmkeirns) June 9, 2025
Katherine also pointed out that gymnastics as a sport eyes very different histories for men and women. “Men’s and Women’s gymnastics are different sports because they have different histories. Men’s events come from 19th century military exercises while women’s come from a culture celebrating femineity and grace in the same time period emphasizing flexibility and dance,” said one of her tweets in the thread.
For now, the conversation continues online, with many people from the sports world sharing their thoughts as the debate goes on.
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